UniLang Italian for Beginners

Italian for Beginners

Introduction

Welcome to the Italian course! Italian is a Romance language and is spoken by 75 million people, mostly in Italy. It's one of the official languages in Switzerland and it is also known and spoken in Albania and Malta. We want to help you learn this great foreign language and we hope this little course can help. Of course we also have a big grammar reference and a list of vocabulary available for you to study. This course in part one is intended for absolute beginners who need a little assistance with starting to learn some basics. So this is not a complete course, when we've showed you the most important basics we'll let go you and then you can explore our grammar reference all by yourself.

Before you continue you must do two things, first of all, make sure you are familiar with all the basic grammar terms, do you know what a noun is? What a verb is? What an adverb is? The second thing you should do is to learn how to pronounce things in Italian. Although we still don't have real lessons in this, you could go to the Sonidos Del Mundo project to hear some Italian. We'll ask you to study a number of words in each lesson and you can practice the grammar and vocabulary with some exercises. After you've done the exercises you can check whether your answer is correct using the following solutions. Buon divertimento!

Part One - The Basics

Lesson 1: To Be

21 letters compose the Italian alphabet. It's missing j, k, w, x and y. If you know the IPA, it will help you a lot since the words are pronounced as they're written. We'll start by teaching you how to introduce yourself in Italian, take a look at the following Italian sentence and its English translation. All Italian text will be written in blue and the English translation in green.

Io sono Davide
I am David

Here we see your very first Italian sentence where you introduce yourself as Davide; you should of course replace the name with your own name. Although the sentence consists of only three words we are going to carefully examine each word. The first word "Io" is the Italian equivalent of the English word "I", also referred to as 1^st person singular; it's a subject pronoun. The second word "sono" is a verb; it's a conjugation of the irregular Italian verb "essere", which is one of the Italian equivalents of "to be". Note that, in Italian, the subject pronoun is optional, and it's usually omitted. So you could also say: "Sono Davide", because the verb "sono" already indicates that it is "I" who's saying it. So remember, only use a subject pronoun such as "Io" when you really want to imply that it's absolutely that person who's doing something.

Now we've seen how to introduce yourself using "sono" but we can also introduce other people, take a look at the following examples; we've put the subject pronouns between brackets because they are usually omitted:

(Io) sono Davide.	I am Davide.
(Tu) sei Davide.	You are Davide.
(Lui) è Davide.	He is Davide.
(Lei) è Giovanna.	She is Giovanna.
È Davide.	It is Davide.
(Noi) siamo Davide e Giovanna.	We are Davide and Giovanna.
(Voi) siete Davide e Giovanna.	You are Davide and Giovanna.
(Loro) sono Davide e Giovanna.	They are Davide and Giovanna.

Those are a lot of new words! But it's all very easy. Now you've seen all subject pronouns in Italian, which are usually omitted, and you know how to refer to people. And besides that you've also learned your first Italian verb, an irregular verb: "Essere", in English "To be". In Italian and most other languages, but not in English, there also exists a certain polite form of "you". In Italian they say "Lei" instead of "tu" in formal speech, "tu" is only used among friends, people of the same age and for children. Verbs after "Lei" are conjugated like a 3^rd person singular. Take a look at the following sample sentences, and note that the subject pronoun is usually omitted, but for this example we haven't omitted it:

Lei è nonna	You are grandmother
Lei è Davide	You are Davide

And this same construction also applies to the plural form of "you"; instead of "voi" they use "Loro" that is conjugated as a 3^rd person plural.

There is also a small new word that appeared in this lesson, the Italian word "e", which means "and". Note that there is no translation for the pronoun "it" in the example. Actually there is one, but is almost never used and you usually omit it. It's also a good exercise to try to pronounce every Italian sentence you see on this page, and when you're uncertain of how to pronounce a certain character or group of characters then go to the pronunciation page.

Vocabulary

padre	father
madre	mother
nonna	grandmother
nonno	grandfather

Exercises
In these exercises we ask you to write the subject pronoun between brackets so you learn those too. In the next lessons you can omit the subject pronoun.

Exercise A: Translate to English:
1) (Lui) è Davide.
2) È padre.
3) (Loro) sono Davide e Luigi.
4) (Lei) è madre.
5) (Tu) sei nonna.
6) (Tu) sei nonno.
7) (Noi) siamo George e William.

Exercise B: Translate to Italian:
1) We are James and Jane.
2) You are father. - polite singular form -
3) I am mother.
4) She is grandmother.
5) They are Davide and Luigi.
6) You are George and William.
7) You are grandfather.

Solutions

Solution of Exercise A:
1) He is Davide.
2) It is the father.
3) They are Davide and Luigi.
4) She is mother.
5) You are grandmother.
6) You are grandfather.
7) We are George and William.

Solution of Exercise B:
1) (Noi) siamo James e Jane.
2) (Lei) è padre.
3) (Io) sono madre.
4) (Lei) è nonna.
5) (Loro) sono Davide e Luigi.
6) (Voi) siete George e William.
7) (Tu) sei nonno.

Lesson 2: Articles and Gender

Apparently you've successfully finished lesson one, so now we can continue with the second lesson. In this lesson you'll learn how to describe certain objects. First of all we are going to teach you the concept of noun gender. A concept not known in English but that appears in almost every other language. In most other languages a noun has a certain gender. So you're telling me a noun can be a boy or a girl? Indeed...that's what we're saying. A noun has a certain gender, in Italian (and many other Latin languages) there are two genders: masculine and feminine. Every noun has one of these two genders. How to determine what gender has isn't usually hard. And can be explained using a number of guidelines:

Nouns ending in -O or -E are usually masculine.
Nouns ending in -A or -I are usually feminine
Nouns ending in any consonant are always masculine
Nouns ending in -TÀ or -TÔ are always feminine

NOTE: There are of course several exceptions. When in doubt check a dictionary.

The best way to learn the gender of noun is checking the article it is used with. Actually in the previous lesson you learned how to say "He is father" but that sounds a little bit tarzan-like, wouldn't it sound better if you could say "He is a father" or "He is the father"? That's what you'll learn now. Take a look at these Italian sentences:

(Lui) è il padre.	He is the father.
(Lui) è lo zio.	He is the uncle.
(Lei) è la madre.	She is the mother.
(Lui) è un padre.	He is a father.
(Lui) è uno zio.	He is an uncle.
(Lei) è una madre.	She is a mother.

Here we see a whole mix of words, we see "il", "lo", and "la" as a translation of "the" and "un", "uno" and "una" as a translation of "a" and "an". When the noun to which the article applies is a masculine noun then "the" can be translated as "il" or "lo". What is the article I have to use? There are some guidelines that help you to determine what the article to use is:

"IL" is used for all masculine nouns starting in a consonant, except the case where you use "lo".
"LO" is used for all masculine nouns starting in a vowel, X, Y, Z, GN, PN, PS or S followed by a consonant. When the noun starts in a vowel, it will become "l'".
"LA" is used for all feminine nouns starting in a consonant. It will become "l'" with nouns starting in a vowel.

When the noun to which the article applies is a masculine noun then "a/an" can be translated as "un", or "uno", if the article applies to a feminine noun then the article that has to be used is "una".

"UN" is used for all masculine nouns, except the cases where you have to use "UNO"
"UNO" is used for all masculine nouns starting in X, Y, Z, GN, PN, PS, S followed by consonant or I followed by vowel
"UNA" is used with all feminine nouns.

Now it's time to learn plural nouns. Until now you've only seen singular nouns such as "house" and "chair", but now we'll teach you how to form a plural noun ("houses", "chairs") in Italian.

Forming a plural noun in Italian is not the easiest thing. Here are some guidelines:

The nouns ending in -O or -E usually change their ending in -I
The feminine nouns ending in -A usually change their ending in -E
The masculine nouns ending in -A usually change their ending in -I
The nouns ending in -I or a stressed vowel or a consonant don't change at all

Some examples:

"Libro - Libri, Fiume - Fiumi, Scimmia - Scimmie"

NOTE: There are of course many, many, many exceptions and irregularities. When in doubt check a dictionary. On the vocabulary, we'll show you what the irregular plural forms are.

In this table, you will see all the articles and their plural form

	ARTICLES
	DETERMINATIVE			INDETERMINATIVE
	Masculine		Feminine	Masculine		Feminine
Singular	il	lo (l')	la (l')	un	uno	una
Plural	i	gli	le	-

Like in English, the plural indeterminative articles don't exist.

Well, this noun gender concept might have confused you a bit. For English speaking people it can be a weird concept. But if English is not your native language then it's most likely that you are already familiar with noun gender. From now on we will also mention the article of a noun in our vocabulary lists.

In this lesson we'll also introduce another irregular Italian verb, the verb "avere" which means "to have". Take a look at the full conjugation and translation of this verb:

(Io) ho	I have
(Tu) hai	You have
(Lui) ha	He has
(Lei) ha	She has OR you have *polite singular form
Ha	It has
(Noi) abbiamo	We have
(Voi) avete	You have
(Loro) hanno	They have OR you have *polite plural form

Now you've learned a new verb, memorize it.

Vocabulary

Learn the following words, the words of the previous lesson are mentioned again, but this time we also show what definite article to use.

il padre	the father
la madre	the mother
la nonna	the grandmother
il nonno	the grandfather
lo zio	the uncle
la sedia	the chair
la casa	the house
il tavolo	the table
il gatto	the cat
il cane	the dog
l'osso	the bone
l'animale	the animal
l'edificio	the building

Exercises

Exercise A: Translate to English:
1) Un gatto è un animale.
2) La casa è un edifício.
3) Il cane ha un osso.
4) Ho un gatto.
5) Il padre ha una casa.
6) Il padre e la madre hanno un cane.
7) Hai una casa.

Exercise B: Translate to Italian:
1) The uncle has a cat.
2) A cat is an animal.
3) The table has a chair.
4) The grandmother and the grandfather have a dog.
5) The mother has a dog and the father has a cat.
6) We have a table.
7) They have the house.

Solutions

Solution of Exercise A:
1) A cat is an animal.
2) The house is a building.
3) The dog has a bone.
4) I have a cat.
5) The father has a house.
6) The father and the mother have a dog.
7) You have a house.

Solution of Exercise B:
1) Lo zio ha un gatto.
2) Un gatto è un animale.
3) Il tavolo ha una sedia.
4) La nonna e il nonno hanno un cane.
5) La madre ha un cane e il padre ha un gatto.
6) Abbiamo un tavolo.
7) Hanno la casa.

Lesson 3: Demonstrative and Possessive Adjectives and Pronouns

We'll continue with indicating possession. We're going to teach you the so- called "possessive pronouns" or "possessive adjectives". I suppose you already know what an adjective is. But if you don't, then reread the intro to the grammar chapter about adjectives. An adjective tells something about a noun, it describes a property of a noun. In Italian, adjectives conjugate in number and gender. Remember, however, that t the adjectives you're going to learn are irregular. Here are several new sentences:

Questa è la mia sedia	This is my chair
Questo è il mio cane	This is my dog
Quella è la tua sedia	That is your chair
Quello è il tuo cane	That is your dog
Queste sono le sue sedie	These are his/her chairs
Questi sono i suoi cani	These are his/her dogs
Quelle sono le nostre sedie	Those are our chairs
Quelli sono i nostri cani	Those are our dogs
Questa è la vostra sedia	This is your chair
Questo è il vostro cane	This is your dog
Quella è la loro sedia	That is their chair
Quello è il loro cane	That is their dog

In these sentences you could see the demonstratives independent forms, separated by the verb "to be". They are: "questo/i" ("this/these") and "quello/i" ("that/those") with masculine nouns, and "questa/e" ("this/these") and "quella/e" ("that/those") with feminine nouns. Like in English, articles can't precede these pronouns.

You've also seen the possessive adjectives. They have to agree in gender and number with the noun, too. Unlike in English, determinative article usually precedes this adjective, except when the noun is a family member (father, mother, grandfather, and so on). Remember that "Suo" or "Loro" with capital letter are the polite forms. When you refer to his/her, it's not the gender of the person that matters, but the gender of the thing possessed. Let's see some other sentences:

Questa sedia è la mia	This chair is mine
Questo cane è il tuo	This dog is yours
Queste sedie sono le sue	These chairs are his/hers
Questi cani sono i nostri	These dogs are ours
Quella sedia è la vostra	That chair is yours
Quel cane è il loro	That dog is theirs
Quelle sedie sono le Sue	Those chairs are yours *polite singular form
Quei cani sono i Loro	Those dogs are yours *polite plural form

You've learned a couple of things now: the demonstratives used adjectively and possessive pronouns. The last ones are identical to their adjectives and are always preceded by the demonstrative article. The demonstrative adjective forms of quello" are different from the pronouns, instead and it follows a conjugation similar to the one of the article. Here are some table that will help you learning what we've just explained:

	DEMONSTRATIVE ADJECTIVES
	That/Those			This/These
	Masculine		Feminine	Masculine	Feminine
Singular	quel	quello (quell')	quella (quell')	questo	questa
Plural	quei	quelli	quelle	questi	queste

	POSSESSIVE ADJECTIVES and PRONOUNS
	Singular		Plural
	Masculine	Feminine	Masculine	Feminine
1st singular	(il) mio	(la) mia	(i) miei	(le) mie
2nd singular	(il) tuo	(la) tua	(i) tuoi	(le) tue
3rd singular	(il) suo	(la) sua	(i) suoi	(le) sue
1st plural	(il) nostro	(la) nostra	(i) nostri	(le) nostre
2nd plural	(il) vostro	(la) vostra	(i) vostri	(le) vostre
3rd plural	(il) loro	(la) loro	(i) loro	(le) loro
polite singular	(il) Suo	(la) Sua	(i) Suoi	(le) Sue
polite plural	(il) Loro	(la) Loro	(i) Loro	(le) Loro

Now we'll teach you one last thing in this lesson. You have to know that in Italian the word order is very flexible and it often occurs that the subject of the sentence appears at the end of the sentence. An example of two sentences that are exactly the same, except for the word order:

"Tua madre ha le chiavi"	"Your mother has the keys"
"Ha le chiavi tua madre"	"Your mother has the keys"

You see the flexible word other, get used to it because it sometimes occurs that the subject appears at the end of a sentence or in after the verb, not necessarily at the end of a sentence. I think this has been enough material for this third lesson.

Vocabulary

il libro	the book
il cavallo	the horse
il fiume	the river
l'occhio	the eye *plural: occhi
la scimmia	the monkey
il topo	the mouse
la chiave	the key
la maglietta	the t-shirt
la torre	the tower
la fotografia	the photo
la macchina fotografica	the camera *plural: macchine fotografiche
qui	here
lì	there
molto	much *used with singular masculine nouns
molti	many *used with plural masculine nouns
molta	much *used with singular feminine nouns
molte	many *used with plural feminine nouns

Exercises

Exercise A: Translate to English:
1) Queste sono le mie fotografie
2) Una scimmia ha occhi
3) Queste sono le loro chiavi
4) Questo è un topo
5) Ho molti cavalli
6) Hai la nostra macchina fotografica
7) Lei ha la vostra chiave
8) Queste sono le tue torri
9) Lei ha questi libri
10) Abbiamo queste macchine fotografiche

Exercise B: Translate to Italian:
1) We have many t-shirts.
2) These are my eyes.
3) That is his key.
4) This is your book and these are your dogs. (spoken to a stranger)
5) I have those photos.
6) Her books have photos.
7) They have the house.
8) This house is yours. (spoken to a dear friend)
9) You are their grandmother. (use formal speech)
10) He has this camera.
11) The houses have many keys.

Solutions

Solution of Exercise A:
1) These are my photos.
2) A monkey has eyes.
3) These are their keys.
4) This is a mouse.
5) I have many horses.
6) You have our camera.
7) She has your key.
8) These are your towers.
9) She has these books.
10) We have these cameras.

Solution of exercise B:
1) Abbiamo molte magliette.
2) Questi sono i miei occhi.
3) Quella è la sua chiave.
4) Questo è il Suo libro e questi sono i Suoi cani.
5) Ho quelle fotografie.
6) I suoi libri hanno fotografie.
7) Hanno la casa.
8) Questa casa è la tua.
9) (Lei) è loro nonna.
10) Ha questa macchina fotografica.
11) Le case hanno molte chiavi.

Lesson 4: Regular Verbs and Negation

You've already worked your way through three chapters, make sure you understood everything that appeared in those chapters, make sure you understand the grammar and vocabulary and do make the exercises to practice. Also make sure you try to pronounce every Italian sentence so you can practice your pronunciation.

Let's start now by learning how to build the present tense of a regular Italian verb. In Italian a regular verb in the present tense always has the same endings. There are three groups of verbs in Italian: those whose infinitive ends in ARE, those in ERE, those in IRE.

First conjugation - ARE

"Parlare" ("to speak" in English) and all other infinitive verbs that end in ARE, belong to the first group and all are regular except some.

Parl o	I speak
Parl i	You speak
Parl a	He/she/it speaks - You speak *polite form
Parl iamo	We speak
Parl ate	You speak
Parl ano	They speak - You speak *polite form

It's pretty easy to understand. Each person has it's own ending. The endings you just saw are valid for all regular verbs that end in ARE. The verbs ending in IARE are slightly irregular and get these endings. Let's see for example "mangiare", "to eat".

Mangi o	I eat
Mangi -	you eat
Mangi a	he/she/it eats - you eat *polite form
Mangi amo	we eat
Mangi ate	you eat
Mangi ano	they eat - you eat *polite form

Also verbs ending in CARE or GARE have a different conjugation. Here's the verb "giocare", "to play (a game)".

Gioc o	I play
Gioc hi	you play
Gioc a	he/she/it plays - you play *polite form
Gioc hiamo	we play
Gioc ate	you play
Gioc ano	they play - you play *polite form

In this first group of verbs there are only 4 verbs that are completely irregular and are very important. They're "andare", "dare", "fare", and "stare". We'll find them all in part two of this course.

Second conjugation - ERE

In this group there are a lot of irregular verbs, for example "essere" and "avere" you've already learned. "Vivere", "to live", is irregular but behaves regularly at present tense. Have a look at the endings:

Viv o	I live
Viv i	You live
Viv e	He/she/it lives - You live *polite form
Viv iamo	We live
Viv ete	You live
Viv ono	They live - You live *polite form

This group includes the infinitive verbs ending in ARRE, ORRE and URRE, which have a Latin root.

Third conjugation - IRE

Also in this group there are quite irregular verbs. "Aprire", "to open" is irregular, too, but not at the present tense. This group is very similar to the conjugations of the ERE group.

Apr o	I open
Apr i	You open
Apr e	He/she/it opens - You open *polite form
Apr iamo	We open
Apr ite	You open
Apr ono	They open - You open *polite form

A common irregularity in this group is the adding of "ISC". Here's the verb "finire", "to finish":

Fin isc o	I finish
Fin isc i	you finish
Fin isc e	he/she/it finishes - you finish *polite form
Fin - iamo	we finish
Fin - ite	you finish
Fin isc ono	they finish - you finish *polite form>

It's rather confusing: you should memorize the ending of each person for each of the three groups and all the irregular verbs. Try to exercise as much as you can. Pay attention! Italian present tense also include English present perfect and future expressed by "will" or "to be +...ing" but we're going to look at this more carefully in part two. Here are some examples:

Vivo qui da un anno	I've lived here for a year
Vado a casa	I'll go home
Stasera vedo un film	I'm watching a film tonight

Now we're going to talk about negation, because you might want to say: "That is NOT a house", and "that is NO dog". In ITALIAN "no" is translated as "non". It appears directly before the main verb and you don't have to use any helper verb as "don't".

I think that's enough material for now, make sure you understand it. It's quite hard. So don't hesitate to reread this lesson a couple of times.

Vocabulary

From now on there will also be regular verbs (or at least verbs that are regular in the present tense) in the list.

parlare	to speak
mangiare	to eat
giocare	to play (a game)
vivere	to live
amare	to love
correre	to run
vedere	to see/watch
il bambino	the child/the boy
l'uomo	the man *plural: uomini
la donna	the woman
la mela	the apple
l'albero	the tree
italiano	italian
inglese	english

Exercises

Exercise A: Translate to English:
1) Vedo le fotografie.
2) L'uomo corre.
3) Il bambino mangia una mela.
4) Le donne non vedono l'albero.
5) Non vedo alberi.
6) Non ha cavalli.
7) Il bambino mangia molto.
8) Mangiano molte mele.
9) Questi non sono animali.
10) La donna non vede.
11) Parli italiano.
12) Parliamo inglese.

Exercise B: Translate to Italian:
1) I see a tree.
2) You do not see this.
3) We speak Italian.
4) I have no children.
5) She sees an apple.
6) This isn't her grandfather.
7) You speak Italian.
8) They see my house.
9) He sees that tree.
10) I am not Italian.
11) We do not have those keys.

Solutions

Solution of Exercise A:
1) I see the photos.
2) The man runs.
3) The child eats an apple.
4) The women don't see the tree.
5) I don't see any trees.
6) He doesn't have horses OR She doesn't have horses OR you don't have horses.
7) The child/the boy eats much.
8) We eat many apples.
9) These are no animals.
10) The woman doesn't see.
11) You speak Italian.
12) We speak English.

Solution of exercise B:
1) Vedo un albero.
2) Non vedi questo OR Non vedete questo OR Non vede questo OR Non vedono questo.
3) Parliamo italiano.
4) Non ho bambini.
5) Vede una mela.
6) Questo non è suo nonno.
7) Parli italiano OR Parlate italiano OR Parla italiano OR Parlano italiano.
8) Vedono la mia casa.
9) Vede quell'albero.
10) Non sono Italiano OR Non sono Italiana (if the speaker is female).
11) Non abbiamo quelle chiavi.

LESSON 5: Adjectives, Adverbs and Questions

After the difficult lesson you've just done we'll make things a little easier. In this lesson we'll teach you how to use adjectives in Italian. They usually appear next to the noun, although it can also be separated from the noun using the verb "essere" (in English: "to be"). Note that in such a construction the "independent" adjective is never a direct object! You've already seen the demonstrative and possessive adjectives behave. Here are some examples:

Quell'uomo è bello.	That man is handsome.
Quegli uomini sono belli.	Those men are handsome.
Questa donna è molto bella.	This woman is very beautiful.
Queste donne sono molto belle.	These women are very beautiful.

This is an easy construction. Remember that the Italian adjective is conjugated in every construction. You have to make sure that the adjective agrees in gender and number with the noun. There are four kinds of adjectives in Italian that change their endings in different ways. Here's the first one:

BELLO	Masculine singular
BELLI	Masculine plural
BELLA	Feminine singular
BELLE	Feminine plural

As you could see there are 4 endings. Also "alto" and "lento" behave like "bello". Let's see the second kind of adjectives:

GRANDE	Masculine singular
GRANDE	Masculine plural
GRANDI	Feminine singular
GRANDI	Feminine plural

In this case there are only two endings: in this category there are also "veloce", "giovane", "gentile".

There are some exceptions but we won't go through those now. Of course an adjective usually appears next to the noun (in Italian usually after the noun) instead of being separated by "essere".

"La casa grande"	"The big house"
"Il bambino giovane"	"The young child"
"La donna vecchia"	"The old woman"
"Le mele rosse"	"The red apples"

Now we can move on to the matter of adverbs. An adverb can be compared to an adjective but instead it says something about a verb instead of a noun. It's easy to form an adverb in Italian, just use the feminine form of the adjective and add MENTE.

"Lui corre rapidamente"	"He runs fast"
"Parlo lentamente"	"I speak slowly"
"Parla Italiano fluentemente"	"He/She/It speaks Italian fluently"

Now you also know how to form adverbs, it's really easy. Of course there are also irregular adverbs, a good example would be "well" in Italian: "bene".

We can continue with asking question in Italian, to tell things is nice, but once in a while you might need to ask something to someone. We'll teach you.

In an Italian question the verb often precedes the subject of the sentence and you don't have to use any helper verb such as "do". Some questions:

Chi è quell'uomo vecchio?	Who's that old man?
Che cosa vedi?	What do you see?
Quale è il tuo vero nome?	What is your real name?
Quali sono i tuoi zii? Questi o quelli?	Which are your uncles? These or those?
Quanto sei alto?	How tall are you?
Quanti anni hai?	How old are you? Lit: How many years do you have?
Dove vivi?	Where do you live?
Quando mangiamo?	When do we eat?
Come ti chiami?	What's your name? Lit: How do you call yourself?
Perché non parli?	Why don't you speak?

You've seen some interrogative pronouns now (the words used to ask question: such as: "what?" etc...). One strange thing is that you see two words for "what", there are two variant, you can say either "Che cosa" or "Quale/i". The first one when asking about facts and such, the second one lies closer to our word "which", it describes an option, a choice, one of more possibilities. These pronouns act as relative pronouns, too:

Vedo che cosa mangi

I see what you eat

This concludes the fifth lesson.

Vocabulary

chiamare	to call
camminare	to walk
nuotare	to swim
veloce	fast
lento	slow
vecchio	old
giovane	young
alto	high
grande	big
buono	good
cattivo	bad
simpatico	nice
gentile	kind
nuovo	new
la bicicletta	the bike
l'anno	the year
chi?	who?
che cosa?	what?
quale/i?	which? / what?
quanto/a?	how much
quanti/e?	how many
perché?	why?
quando?	when?
dove?	where?
come?	how?
molto	very

Exercises

Exercise A: Translate to English:
1) Questo uomo è un uomo gentile
2) Chi è quel bambino gentile ?
3) Quando mangiamo?
4) Che cosa è questo?
5) La casa grande è la nostra
6) Ella corre velocemente
7) La mia vecchia nonna è molto gentile
8) La mia bicicletta è nuova
9) Questi sono animali molto simpatici
10) Che cosa vedi?

Exercise B: Translate to Italian:
1) I see a new chair.
2) The old woman sees an apple.
3) Who are you?
4) She is not old.
5) They walk fast.
6) Our grandmother is an old woman.
7) These children are young.
8) The young child sees a high table.
9) What does the bad dog see?
10) Why doesn't the kind cat see?

Solutions

Solution of Exercise A:
1) This man is a kind man.
2) Who is that kind child?
3) When do we eat?
4) What is that?
5) The big house is ours.
6) She runs fast.
7) My old grandmother is very kind.
8) My bike is new.
9) These are very nice animals.
10) What do you see?

Solution of Exercise B:
1) Vedo una sedia nuova.
2) La donna vecchia vede una mela.
3) Chi sei ? OR Chi siete? OR Chi è? OR Chi sono?
4) Non è vecchia.
5) Camminano velocemente.
6) Nostra nonna è una donna vecchia.
7) Questi bambini sono giovani.
8) Il bambino giovane vede un tavolo alto.
9) Che cosa vede il cane cattivo?
10) Perché il gatto gentile non vede?

End Of Part One

This is the end of part one. Now you've learned some of the basics of the Italian language and can get to part two. However, we do have a lot more information on Italian grammar available for you on the UniLang site! And now you know some basics you will probably manage to learn more with other aids. Thanks for your interest in this course! If you discovered any mistakes, you just want to say something, have a doubt or want to prectise, then please let us know.

We do need feedback! So contact us if you discover any mistakes or have questions or just want to point something out!

To Part 2